110 Responses to “Free for All: 10/15/12”

Endorse Romney at your own risk — You may be called nasty names if you endorse Mitt Romney. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:

“‘Friday Night Lights’ author Buzz Bissinger explained on Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ that his Daily Beast column endorsing Mitt Romney, published last week, prompted a firestorm of rage and contempt from liberals. ‘I would say between the Daily Beast comments, Twitter comments, Facebook comments … I ran about 6-1 against,’ Bissinger said. ‘And it wasn’t just, you know, ‘I disagree’ with you. It was the f-word, it was ‘you’re a baby killer.’ It was even friends, among friends it wasn’t as vitriolic. It was this sense of, ‘How dare you, you’re a traitor. You’re a writer. You’re a journalist. How can you possibly come out in favor of this man.'”

the cynic in me says that if Romney made an issue of gas earlier, Obama would have had time to manipulate prices via the SPR. If he does it this late immediately after Romney’s criticism, not even MSNBC could ignore the blatant political move.

“if Romney made an issue of gas earlier, Obama would have had time to manipulate prices via the SPR. If he does it this late immediately after Romney’s criticism, not even MSNBC could ignore the blatant political move.”

I guess one of the hosts argued the “point” with Ablow, but what exactly is his purpose, other than to make inflammatory statements based on casual observations? This isn’t his first time at the rodeo.

Joe Biden doesn’t drink. I have no idea if this is an AA thing, or he just isn’t a drinker, but FNC owes him an apology. Unless they have concrete evidence to support the contention, they have no right to allow that on their air. There aren’t many lines left you can’t cross on cable news, but tagging anyone you disagree with as a drunk is one of them.

Ablow is a great example of Foxification. I can’t swear to it, but I think he started out as an educated, sane observer (don’t quote me on that). He has no business making such conjectures, and they have no business giving him air.

Ablow and Megyn Kelly had a big blow-out a while ago when Chaz Bono had her transgender (?) operation. Ablow was against it for medical reasons, such as the huge amounts of hormones that have to be taken. Kelly was for it, if I remember, and their debate got very heated. I kind of agreed with Ablow on the hormone thing but he came across as a little insensitive for Kelly’s taste.

Oh, that’s right, the president controls gas prices when it’s a Democrat in office. When it’s a Republican in office, it’s the free market that controls gas prices and there’s nothing the president can do. Sorry, my bad.

And if the president gets blamed for gas prices and could lose political power over it, why in the hell would they want gas prices to be high? Only idiots think that the president wants high energy prices. And only idiots thinks the president controls gas prices.

You might want to check out what he said about cap and trade and what he would do to energy prices also.

While I dont agree that a president is to blame for high gas prices the hypocrisy on this issue is amazing to me.
Some time this week my ballot should come and once again I will vote for Obama…..but If gas is high when most vote hes going to lose tons of votes. If its over $400 its going to be a landslide becasue that will effect last min voters allot.

This time GOTV is what will decide who wins and I dont know one excited Obama voter in my area (IL) but I sure do know people who like me in 2008 cant wait to go to the polls for the GOP ticket….thats a bad sign for Obama.

Here in “battleground” Virginia, every single commercial on TV, radio and even Pandora/YouTube/Hulu has been a damn campaign ad. Literally. Every single one. 100%. I’m about to pull out my rifle and shoot the damn television and radio (actually, it’s a genuine Philco-Ford radio so I won’t shoot it). I like politics but I like it on my own time.

Lots of wasted money on ads this year IMHO I’ve had been sent about 10 things from the GOP guy running for the house.

Not One thing from the Democrat. Funny thing is for once due to redistricting I’m voting for the Gop for the house this year as the Dem running a 2 time loser and IMHO not up to the job…..he is a very nice guy I’ve talked with him and I just don’t think he can do the job.

I stopped watching local Tv when the ads got too much and now even cable is getting that way…hello DVR…..I wonder what that does to numbers in the end?

Maybe Keith Ablow has been skipping his own required psychoanalysis sessions. I, too, found VP Biden’s demeanour odd and uncharacteristic. True, such mannerisms are not uncommon for those with a history of drug or alcohol abuse… but it’s much more likely his attitude and demeanour were an intentional creation.

Biden doesn’t drink because many of his own family members are/were alcoholics. He deserves credit for that decision.

When running for office, Obama said he was going to “do something” about the gas prices. I think Megyn Kelly showed this clip of him standing in a gas station parking lot, claiming it would be a priority. So it’s reasonable to ask, “Sooo… how’s the going, Mr. President?”

And for years we were told it was Bush’s fault gas prices were so high. We were treated to daily, “Pain at the pump” stories. So, where all those stories lies? Where are those folks today?

RE: BIDEN’S NON-DRINKING

Where is/was the outrage over the “dry drunk” or “alcoholic” charges every time someone on the left said that about Bush? Where is/was the same outrage when they talk about Boehner being an “alcoholic?”

As head of the State Dept. she may honestly feel responsible, but it doesn’t make any difference. POTUS gets credit for the kills, and takes the blame for losing Americans to a terorist attack of a consulate. As for “confusion”, no one has yet explained the Susan Rice fiasco.

I think right after the attack, the press’s sole attention to sticking Romney for his comment, gave the Obama administration the idea that they could send Rice out to blow smoke and duck the whole can of worms until after the election. Turns out to have not went as planned.

The gig was up by the foillowing Thursday via Richard Engel and Morning Joe. You know, that show everybody knows the White House watches. To think they could ignore that and create a better story on Sunday is simply incompetent.

This took a lot of guts to do this in the middle of the sh!tstorm raging over Benghazi right now. Take note Obama, this is how real leaders act. When someone of real authority stands up and takes responsibility for a mess, you know they are going to get to the bottom of it. I hope real answers will soon follow. Those who died in the consulate attack deserve the truth.

Let me explain, Blue. George Bush had an absolutist and somewhat simplistic decision-making style. Much psychoanalyzing of this rather unusual approach from a world leader ensued, with some conclusions reaching back to he apparently had been an alcoholic, and quit cold turkey without therapy. This is commonly known as a “dry drunk” because taking the alcohol away without treatment has troubling effects on the mind.

Are we clear now? If you think Biden is a recovering alcoholic (I don’t know), and that it explains his hyperactive behavior at the debate, that’s fine. Claiming without evidence he had been drinking is certainly not.

Nope. I’m not moving on with someone who can’t bring himself to agree with me before moving on to another subject. It’s a peculiarity with many righties I debate: If we reach a place where they see my point, they don’t acknowledge it..they just move on to the next WHAT ABOUT THIS, HUH? It’s weird.

Just what exactly is Hillary Clinton apologizing for? That people were murdered because of her bad decisions? She certainly didn’t accept responsibility for the lies that were being spewed at the public for more than a week.

boogiewoogee, I think she is accepting responsibility for the mistaken info first released and she is trying to clean it up. As for apology, I don’t think those are the words she used. She says the buck stops with her, as head of state dept. That’s more than I have ever heard anyone else say. That being said, she was friends with Chris Stevens so I think she felt the loss very personally. This was handled badly, no doubt, but if someone stands up, accepts the responsibility, and fixes the mess the best they can, I say that is what we should expect from leaders.

WaPo, 10/15, 9:38PM: “In an interview Monday with The Washington Post, Rice said she relied on daily updates from intelligence agencies in the days before her television appearances and on a set of talking points prepared for senior members of the administration by intelligence officials.”

Now that we know they had real-time knowledge of what was happening in Benghazi, I wonder if Amb. Rice was told the truth or if she was just used to further the cover-up for the news media. It does not make sense to me that she would knowingly flat-out lie about it. Also not believable that POTUS and VPOTUS were not given accurate information by somebody as they both have multiple sources of intel available 24-7.

I was thinking this could be honest incompetence or intentional election-season deception. Now I’m thinking it’s probably both.

Afghan Army’s Turnover Threatens U.S. Strategy
By ROD NORDLAND
The Afghan Army is so plagued with desertions and low re-enlistment rates that it has to replace a third of its entire force every year, officials say.

This administration is whatever capacity, the WH, State, intelligence (Clapper, Donilon, etc.) are hoping with the Hilary statement this will pacify people. Do they not understand that there are so many questions still to be answered?

My question, in regards to Al’s quote fro the WaPo, why Rice is still not saying if she got the information from the CIA or the intelligence folks INSIDE the WH.

If you have read any books from former officials from any prior administration you know these folks really evaluate information very differently. Once it gets to the WH folks, Clapper as Director of National Intelligence and Donilon, as National Security Advisor the intelligence is still the same, but how it gets interpreted, i.e. in a more political realm, it can get turned around.

In the WH, EVERYTHING is interpreted politically, especially in an election year.

That said, I am sure that democrats will say this has been resolved and the republicans need to stop politicizing this issue. The question I have is why after the Susan Rice deal, is it ONLY POLITICAL people who are out answering questions! Why no Hilary, Patreaus, Donilon, Clapper, et al?

There was a discussion on Fox News Sunday about how any Sunday show gets people to agree to be on their show, i.e. Susan Rice versus a campaign person.

“HUME: You know the answer to this question, when you are seeking Sunday show guest for this program, where do you get the answers from the administration? Where does that come from.

WALLACE: It comes from the white house.

HUME: Exactly.

WALLACE: Always. For anybody in the administration.

HUME: So, if anybody in the administration. So if Susan Rice is going out, that has been OK’d, approved, and – by the White House. That’s where this comes from, correct?

Now we’re talking about opinion hosts mouthing off? Sorry, that’s way off the original topic Laura broached, which I doubt even she remembers at this point. Maybe you should just accept that “Dr.” Ablow is a quack who has no business diagnosing a nondrinking sitting VP as a drunk on FNC’s air, and quit deflecting with stupid “But what about all the things?” diatribes.

That simply doesn’t make any sense. The audience is supposedly made up of undecided voters, yet you – and now Klein – insist they’re a buncha liberals who won’t like Romney. How ’bout just waiting for the debate instead of beating the low expectations drum like a campaign operative. You don’t work for the candidate.

Ablow parsed his words very carefully so not to make an untrue claim about the vice president. While that surely meets the legal requirements for a physician who is is offering an opinion on national television about someone he’s never examined, I do not believe he met his professional requirements. An Alan Colmes or an Ann Coulter can rightly say such things but from a psychiatrist – who had to know that what he observed was a performance – it’s basically a slander.

Why the hell is Fox News booking a shrink to offer a “state of mind” opinion on the VPOTUS? That’s just wrong.

I live in the most liberal part of the country, and would have no problem finding plenty of undecideds and conservatives in this town. I could get at least a hundred from each church, and we have a lot of them. This idea that an entire county in New York is entirely liberal is statistically impossible.

Joe, I don’t think Klein was trying to say that the questioners will be a bunch of liberals. I said that, or at least that they would be skewed in a very blue state like NY, undecided or not. Klein was making the case that Romney would not know how to react to someone who says, “Yo, Mitt!” Which is kind of insulting to the Nassau County questioners. And the left and the media are so confident that Romney will fall on his face tonight because he can’t connect to ANYONE on a one-on-one level because he’s some kind of mechanical robot. Yesterday on The Cycle Dana Milbank said as much and then repeated several times that only once in a while is Mitt Romney able to show that he is an actual human being. The look on SE Cupp’s face was priceless. If looks could kill…

It’s Friday night. You’re answering phones at Domino’s, taking orders, putting people on ‘hold’. You grab a line, for someone who’s been holding for several minutes. “May I take your order?” Caller: “Hang on..‘What do we want on our pizza?‘” That’s “undecided”.

Ok, I understand now, Carol. I saw the Millbank/Cupp exchange..it was pretty funny. He’s wrong. Anyone who thinks Romney can’t figure out how to pull this off hasn’t been paying attention the last couple weeks. Obama isn’t exactly the warmest character in this forum, so don’t expect him to be miles better than Mitt at “connecting”.

Yeah, and he’s “likable”. In what universe? I voted for him because he supported my issues, while McCain wanted to bomb the world and picked a doofus running mate. I sure as hell didn’t vote for “most winning personality”.

Carol, if your right about the audience (and I don’t think you are) then it’s the Romney campaign you should be angry with, as they are the ones that chose the NY location. But then to find an audience that Romney could relate to you need to go to a place like Palm Beach.

The company I retired from was the biggest customer of his computer company, Perot Systems, runnng our worldwide installation of the German computer management system, SAP. In 2009, Ross sold it to Dell for four billion dollars. I used to dread the calls from Plano Texas in the middle of the night as it ment bad things.

I swear that happened while watching MythBusters on Discovery Channel whatever day that was. I know there’s a difference broadcast channels between over-the-air and cable, but these are cable channels on the same provider.

I agree with Remi and Laura about Obama’s likability factor. He can be a real arrogant pr!ck sometimes. I guess I would have a beer with him but I am certain within 20 minutes I would roll my eyes and think this guy believes he is god’s gift to humanity. BUT, I agree with his political policies and his rhetoric is like catnip for democrats. I am not convinced the town hall is a natural format for Obama. He is NO Clinton.